First Headmaster Laid Foundation For Los Alamos Ranch School Success

Alamos Ranch School’s first headmaster, Fayette Samuel Curtis, Jr. Courtesy photo

By Sharon Snyder
Los Alamos Historical Sociey
With the recent ceremony in Graduation Canyon to honor Los Alamos Ranch School Headmaster Lawrence Hitchcock, it seems fitting to also remember the first headmaster who charted the course in the formative years of the school.

In 1917, Ashley Pond Jr. opened his ranch school with a brochure titled An Outdoor School for Boys that advertised a “regimen to produce complete health and a strong and resilient constituton.” When Fayette Samuel Curtis Jr. arrived the next year as the school’s first headmaster, he must have been as interested in the health benefits as in the salary.

He had recently recovered from tuberculosis. However, he had the qualifications to design a curriculum that would put the ranch school on an academic course that would gain prestige through the years.

Read More